The Soddy-Daisy Kids Club made quite a catch Saturday. The maker of “The Catch” came to help with a camp for the program’s ages 5-12 baseball players.
Otis Nixon, whose spectacular, much-replayed high-rise robbery of a home run helped the Atlanta Braves keep a 13-game winning streak alive in July 1992, gave some tips on throwing, fielding, baserunning and hitting off a tee. He also gave some advice — brief, with respect to young attention spans — about succeeding in life.
“Study hard in school, listen to your parents, stay out of trouble and say no to drugs,” he told the kids after the baseball part was done.
Clay Carroll, a longtime big-league pitcher who’s in the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame, gave a similar message and joined Nixon for an extended autograph and photo session at the Kids Club park.
Drugs derailed Nixon’s own life on more than on one occasion, and he’s written a book about coming to grips with that and turning it into a positive: “Keeping it Real: A Story About Restoring Lives One Man, One Woman, One Child At a Time.”